Liverpool 07/08 Season Thread

It seems Stevie G is out for Sunderland, and likely Toulouse as well.

Is anyone else worried about the game tomorrow? You know everyone is chalking it up as 3 points, but you know they will be very fired up having a chance at a big club in their own stadium. Now, we're without our leader. We'll need Xabi to play big, but I suspect this will be a high-tempo affair which doesn't usually suit him.

Any guesses on the lineup?

--------------Reina------------
Finn----Carra----Hyppia---Riise
Penn----Masch--Xabi---Benny
-------------Babel------------
-------------Torres------------
 
Momo scores - never thought I would see that

Voronin and Torres both with great work rates - really liked seeing them work together. Wish Torres could have finished when he had the chance, but still a good showing.

Carragher - not a good thing to have him go down. I'm confident that we should be ok for the next couple of weeks, but broken ribs can be very tricky.
 
Hyppia with a broken beak and Carra with a broken rib. I wonder is this will drive a last minute purchase for that center back cover we've all been worried about.

Go get Micah Richards, I say!
wink.gif


Is the Toulouse match on tv here?
 
Champions League action today. Crouchy gets a boot to a Dirk Kuyt for a wonderful goal.

Crouchy should have three by now but the guy apparently never learned how to head the ball in his schoolboy days. Kuyt also with a few good opportunities.

Leto got the start on the left wing and has proven to be a bright spot. Not sure how much league action he'll get, but he should be a regular in the Carling Cup. Kid is good.

Benayoun has been tremendous today as well.

We're running our asses off. The quality depth and the competition that results is paying huge dividends.
 
That game was the equivalent of what's to come for our Horns this weekend v. Arkie State - just an absolute ***-whooping.

Dirk Kuyt = MOTM, though Momo was great in the first half, bossing the midfield around with authority. We could have had 11 goals if Crouch knew how to head the ball.

Leto was great in the first half, non-existent in the second. Good experience for the lad though and I look forward to more time on the pitch for him.

Lucas came in with about 15 minutes left and looked very good as well. Babel was effective in his few minutes on the pitch, playing a great one-two with Kuyt who finished brilliantly, tucking the ball inside the far post. He then got a great ball from Yossi and finished the onslaught.

4-0 to the good guys. Onto the CL proper.
 
Didn't see the match, but followed on a match tracker
Thoughts:

Good to see Leto get on the pitch. Have high hopes for him

Sounds like Benayoun hade a big match as well. Love the depth that Rafa has

Also glad to see Crouch score - hopefully the rumors about his transfer aren't true. He will be needed if we intend to make a run at Europe and the Premiership
 
Wow, what a tremendous display. That was one of the most enjoyable Liverpool matches I've seen in some time. The boys ran and hustled for a full 90, and the offense was beautiful, flowing, and creative. The defense had an easy day with those twin destroyers (Momo and Masch) in front of them. All this without Stevie, El Niño, Xabi, or Carra.

Other thoughts:

1. Ignoring Crouchaldinho's amazing poor display of heading accuracy, I thought everyone that played looked good.

2. We really should have scored 7 or 8 - it was that much of am *** whipping. I know Toulouse is not great, but they DID finish 3rd in France last year.

3. I thought Leto looked very promising in the 1st half. He clearly needs some time to understand where he needs to be and what he should be doing, be he displayed very good ball skills.

4. Lucas was very impressive in his 20 minutes. He looked ready to play now. Didn't even see any tackles, but his passing was great.

5. I never would have believed Momo and Masch would have worked as a pairing. I don't know what's gotten into Momo the last 2 matches, but if he keeps playing like this, I don't know how you take him off the team sheet.

6. Based upon the effort last night, I think we are seeing the effects of having competition for spots. Everyone was running and playing hard all 90 minutes (even though the tie never appeared to be in doubt). Yossi, in particular, was playing with his pants on fire.

7. Can Sami give Crouch and Kuyt some heading lessons? These guys need to take about 1000 balls a day off their head until we get this sorted out. If Crouch could fix this, he would become a true menace.
 
Multiple sources are claiming that Rafa has bid 13.5 million pounds for Julio "The Beast" Baptista from Madrid. What's everyone think?

A lot of people seem to slag him, but I think he's quality based on what I've seen. Has he played for Madrid this year? I know he's played on the left before, but is he naturally left-footed?

The Crouchy rumors are heating up again. I'd be surprised by this, as he is now cup-tied in Europe. I'd rather not sell him, but if we do, it CAN'T be in the EPL. He will come back to haunt us.
 
13.5 mill pounds is about twice as much as he's worth.

He's played on the left for Real only because they had no one else to do so 2 years ago. He is nothing like a left winger. He's an attacking-mid/forward.

His finishing for Arsenal last year was pretty poor, but I still rate him. Nonetheless, he's not worth 13.5 mill, knowing that Real want no part of him. You're better off loaning him in.
 
There's no substance to either the Baptista nor the Crouch rumors. Why the hell would we ever buy Baptista, who would be fifth choice striker? Why would we sell Crouch, who Rafa said we'd only let go for 20M pounds?

13.5M pounds for Baptista is an absolute joke. He could be useful at a club like 'Boro, but not at Liverpool, where we have four strikers that are better than him (even if he put four past us - and should have had five).
 
We have got what should be (on paper anyway) our surest 3 points of the season on Saturday: Derby at Anfield. I know everyone's been talking about SG being back for it, but why not give him another day off? If we can't win this without him, we've got serious issues.

After last night, I'm itching to see what Lucas can do with a full 90. How about pairing him with Masch this weekend? A preview of our South American center mid of the future?

What are we going to do with "Best Midfield in the World" if Lucas hits? ;-)
 
I'm all for Lucas starting as well. Hell, let's field a team of all our S. Americans - Insua, Lucas, Leto, and Masch. I too see no point in playing Stevie when we can clearly rest him and get him back to 100%. Momo's looked good and we owe the kid some playing time whenever we can get it for him.

---------------Reina----------------
Arbeloa-----Agger-----Hyypia------Insua
--------------Masch-----------------
Benayoun---------Lucas----------Riise--
-----------Crouch----Torres-----------

Wouldn't mind seeing Babel get the start up top, paired with Torres, but again, I'd like to see players who might only get leftover minutes on the pitch whenever we can afford to. I'd like to season some guys like Insua and Hobbs, and Masch provides every CB plenty of cover. Babel could get the run out at LM, but since I threw Insua in there I figured it might be good to have the workrate and defensive presence of JAR on the left side.
 
I like it, except I can't really see Rafa dropping Pennant 2 in a row (as well as he's played).

When is our other Brazilian going to be back (Aurelio)? He was starting to look really good at LM before he blew out his achilles.
 
Carra and Stevie G are out for Derby. I say good; we shouldn't risk them anyway.

On the plus side, Aurelio and Kewell are actually training, but not quite ready.
 
Rumors are flying that we're about to make a stunning move for Alves. Personally, I think there's about a 1 in a 1000 chance this is true, but can you imagine the "Special One's" reaction? Would almost be worth the money!
cool.gif
 
I'm seeing some speculation about Marek Jankulovski being bought by LFC. That would partially offset the bad news that Paco Ayesteran (Rafa's #2, who's worked with him for years) is supposedly on his way out.
 
Six one way, half-a-dozen the other.

We are rolling and while there's 34 games left to play, we look to be the early favorites for the title. Torres has adapted to life in the Prem unbelievably quickly and our other new signings have been tremendous as well.

Also this gem about Juve's unrequited overtures toward Momo:

In reply to:
Click to expand...
 
Anybody else notice that we're not on Setanta until 3:30? This sucks because now we'll either have to not watch any soccer Saturday morning (DVR everything), or watch it and try to avoid the score updates.

I haven't noticed them starting up the Setanta extra channel this year (670).
 
It's f'in Central Fl. If we can't wipe their ***, what's the point?

I assume you have TIVO or a DVR?

Watch the Reds "live" and then watch the horns on TIVO time and jump through the stupid commercials.

My only concern is that I might not be able to remember the end of the horns game
 
Aurelio will make his return to the squad tomorrow in Portugal. Riise (groin) and Momo have not been included in the traveling party.

Hopefully Rafa learned on Saturday the Crouch and Voronin do not make an effective pairing. He has brought all 4 strikers on the trip, but I certainly expect Torres and Kuyt to start.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Recent Threads

Back
Top